That Glitter-Glued Heart
by KR Blake
Summary: Five-year-old Austin makes a paper heart valentine for a pretty girl in his kindergarten class. For Maae.


**For Maae. **

**Yes, we writers really are your bitches. **

**Now feed us, or we'll call animal control.**

* * *

He looks up from his currently under-construction masterpiece to the pretty girl across the room, grinning to himself mischievously. His chubby fingers work at the paper heart on the table in front of him, drawing madly, adding glitter and lace and pretty much anything that could make the heart look prettier.

'_She doesn't want something ugly,_' he comments to himself in his head as he begins to border the heart with red glitter-glue. '_She should have something pretty._'

He brushes a lock of his shaggy blonde hair, which his mother keeps trying to cut, out of his face, smearing the red glitter-glue on his fingers all across his forehead, but he doesn't stop to wipe it off. Sure, his mother would scold him when he gets home, but he only has a few minutes left until recess, and then the teacher will announce that it's nap time, and he'll never be able to give it to her.

He finally sets down the glitter glue and picks up his signature yellow Crayola marker. Right in the center of the heart, he writes sloppily, _Love, Austen_.

What can he say? He's five, and '_Austin_' is a hard name to spell.

"Okay, kids!" the chipper kindergarten teacher clasps her hands together in front of her chest, smiling broadly. "Put down your markers and exchange your hearts!"

Chairs scrape loudly across the linoleum floor as the children stand and rush over to their best friends to be the first ones to give away their Valentine's Day hearts. But he's not going to give his heart to someone he's known since the start of the school year. No, he doesn't even know her name, but he knows he wants to give his heart to her.

He picks up the still-wet paper heart and pads across the room to where she sits next to a little Latina girl with frizzy black hair, a shy smile playing across his cherubim face. As he nears their meticulously neat table (he watched her clean it thoroughly earlier), her and her friend look up. She smiles politely, but her friend gives his glittery heart an unimpressed look and goes back to pulling a Snack Pack out of her Little Mermaid backpack.

She stands gracefully, her brown curls bouncing around her shoulders as she moves, and picks up her own heart off the table. Unlike Austin's hers doesn't look like a horribly coordinated patchwork quilt. It has an obvious theme to it, and the colours complement each other quite well.

He looks down guiltily to his own heart. The glitter-glue is beginning to droop a bit, and the lace hangs over the edge, giving the heart a weird shape. Not like hers. Hers is perfect, and his is ugly.

He frowns and turns around to sulk back to his table and throw the stupid heart away, when her small foot catches the legs of a chair and she falls forward with a sharp squeal. Her heart flies out of her hands and up into the air as she falls.

So much for graceful.

Austin's mouth falls open, ready to say something—to help her up—when something wet and sticky lands on top of his head and slides down the front of his hair.

Her heart.

She stands quickly, brushing dust off her flowery skirt, and rushes over to him. "No, no, no!" she says hurriedly, her hands flying around his face in a frantic panic. "I'm so so so sorry!"

He just laughs, smiling at her overreaction. "For what?" he asks, still laughing. "People are allowed to make mistakes."

Carefully, he peels her heart off the front of his forehead, though not all of it comes off. He can still feel bits of lace and a few choice buttons (not to mention most of the glitter-glue) in his hair and stuck to his face, though they just made him smile even wider. He hands her the ruined heart, and she looks down, her bottom lip quivering, like she might cry.

"My heart," she sighs, her angelic voice breaking slightly.

He looks down at his own, his real heart suddenly beating loudly in his ears. "Here," he says, holding the heart out. She looks up to him, her ginormous chocolate eyes watering as she is clearly trying to fight back tears. "Take mine."

"But—but what about you?" she snivels, wiping her nose.

"It's okay," he shrugs, handing her the heart. She looks down at the heart, reading his messy writing carefully, running her tiny finger along the edge. "I made it for you."

* * *

**11 years later… **

They sit together on her bed, watching a movie like they do every Friday night. Tonight it's a classic; _Mulan_. His arm is around her shoulder and her head is rested happily on his chest. Neither of them says a word as the movie progresses, they just play with each other's hands and occasionally laugh when Mushu does something funny. They never _did_ have to say much to say a lot to each other.

"Hey, Austin?" she asks quietly, looking up to him with those same baby deer eyes as she had in kindergarten.

"Yeah?" he answers, looking down to his petite girlfriend, smiling.

"I'm kinda cold; can you get a blanket from the closet?" she asks.

"Sure," he nods, unwrapping himself from her and standing, walking over to her closet. He opens the door and reaches up to the top shelf, to the knitted blanket that's always there. He pulls it down carefully, glancing over his shoulder to the TV screen, where Mulan is currently transforming herself into a guy.

Something hits him in the top of the head and bounces off his shaggy hair onto the floor beside his bare foot (Ally hates shoes in her room).

He frowns down at the object, concealed in the shadows of the closet and bends down to pick it up. It takes him a second to recognize it; a misshapen, slightly crumpled paper heart with a cracked red glitter-glue border and the words "_Love Austen_" written horribly in the centre, surrounded by lace, buttons, and more glitter-glue.

He walks back to the bed, still staring, smiling crookedly, at the heart. She looks away from the movie curiously, sitting up.

"What's that?" she asks.

He turns the heart over to her, and she smiles warmly. "Oh, yeah." She takes the heart in her hand and examines it, though she really doesn't need to—she's had it memorized for years now.

"I can't believe you kept that." He says, settling back onto the bed beside her, wrapping the blanket around the both of them.

"Well, of course I did," she says, resting her head on his shoulder. "It was the first valentine I ever got."

He smiles, blushing, though thankfully it's too dark for her to see, and kisses the top of her head. "Really? The first one?"

"Well, the first one _that mattered_ anyways." She clarifies. He chuckles, playing with a strand of her chocolate hair.

"I love you, Alls." He murmurs, squeezing her tighter.

"I love you more." She replies, looking up to him, pursing her lips slightly. He leans down and kisses her lips softly.

"Not possible."

* * *

**So I know it's a bit different than you requested, Maae, but hopefully it's just as good! (And, as you can see, I did include glue, though it's a bit more sparkly than you probably imagined.) **

**-KR Blake Ω **


End file.
